Culture

Five Cheap and Easy Ways to Eat Local

As reported on LifeHacker. by Nina Tamburello Did you know that the average piece of produce travels 5,000 miles to get to your supermarket? Yep—your lettuce could qualify for more frequent flier miles than you do. If you’re less than excited about this fact, it might be time to consider eating locally (and no, I don’t mean getting take-out from the Chinese restaurant down the street). While it may seem that local food is the latest…

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Entertainment

Six-second teaser trailer for ‘The Wolverine’ released on Vine

As reported on The Verge. By Dante D’Orazio Is six seconds enough time for a movie trailer? Perhaps not, but it is enough for a teaser of a trailer. The official Twitter account for the upcoming X-Men film The Wolverinetweeted a Vine mashup of its upcoming movie trailer today to stir up some hype for the film, making it the first Vine movie trailer we’ve seen. The looping clip works surprisingly well, though the action-heavy film is particularly well-suited for…

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Application Microsoft

Microsoft’s MixShape uses big data and clever visuals to craft the perfect Spotify playlist

As reported on The Verge. By Jeff Blagdon Making a good mix for a party or workout is serious, time-consuming work, so why not throw some data analysis and computing power at the problem? MixShape takes Spotify’s vast music library and couples it with some heavy data analysis from The Echo Nest to give you a graphical representation of the high-energy peaks and down-tempo valleys of a given playlist. Once you have a base to work from (either…

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Application Hardware Dev Science Tech

Heavy weather: why we need supercomputers to teach us how clouds and climate change work

As reported on The Verge. By Carl Franzen There’s still no clear forecast for Earth’s temperature rise, but scientists are looking to the sky for answers There’s a dark cloud hanging over the science of climate change, quite literally. Scientists today have access to supercomputers capable of running advanced simulations of Earth’s climate hundreds of years into the future, accounting for millions of tiny variables. But even with all that equipment and training, they still can’t…

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Business

Pressure Increases On Michael Dell As Carl Icahn Mulls Tie-Up With Blackstone In Bid For PC Company

As reported on TechCrunch. by CATHERINE SHU Carl Icahn has said he is open to a partnership with Blackstone Group in a move that could make it easier for the rival investors to overtake Michael Dell’s $24.4 billion buyout bid for the company he founded, reports Reuters. This means Michael Dell could also potentially lose control of the PC maker he founded when he was 19. This development comes a day after it was revealed that Icahn and Blackstone…

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Microsoft

Microsoft updates Mail, Calendar and People apps in Windows 8, Windows RT

As reported on Engadget. By Dana Wollman Just as last week was winding down, we heard a credible rumor that Microsoft was about to update some of the native apps found in Windows 8 / Windows RT. Turns out, that report was on the money: the company unveiled some changes today to Mail, Calendar and People, with a particular focus on speed improvements. None of these updates will be available to download until tonight or tomorrow, says a…

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Application Cloud Culture

Latest Hulu rumors suggest it could be up for sale, again HD

As reported on Engadget. By Richard Lawler While viewers enjoy promotions like free Star Trek and Kurosawa, Hulu’s owners are once again considering selling the video streaming site. The last bit of news was that News Corp and Disney were considering buying one another out, but according to Reuters, anonymous sources confirm that the board is reaching out to several potential buyers while it considers its options. Another possibility from Varietysuggests that the two would remain as part owners, and welcome…

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Apple Government

Chinese state-run newspaper accuses Apple of lacking openness

As reported on Engadget. By Sharif Sakr The People’s Daily newspaper has slammed Apple’s behavior in China, accusing the company of being “empty and self-praising” in the way it has shrugged off customer complaints and refused journalists’ requests for interviews. The paper’s comments, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, refer to a saga that has been brewing for a while, in which Chinese customers have claimed they’re not receiving the same quality of after-sales care as those in…

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